LittleBigPlanet - Playstation 3 (PS3) Previews


	Platform Playstation 3 Genre Creative Gaming (?) Publisher SCEA Developer Media Molecule Ltd. ETA Q1 2008
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LittleBigPlanet

Every once in a while, whether it has been Seaman, Katamari Damacy or Viva Piñata, a quirky and unique game emerges to the forefront of the gaming industry, usually to critical (if not always commercial) success. That next peculiar title could be Sony’s LittleBigPlanet for the PS3.

How can I best to describe LittleBigPlanet after getting some hands-on playing time at this year’s E3? With elements of puzzle solving, Sims-style social networking and world-building at its core, LittleBigPlanet doesn’t fit neatly into any specific gaming genre. But one definite fact: LittleBigPlanet is a lot of fun, and is one of the major titles planned as a drawing card to Sony’s online PlayStation Network, with rankings and user-created downloads.

You can play alone, but LittleBigPlanet is really designed as a social group interaction. Many puzzles require not only your brainpower but also the brawn and

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thinking skills of your teammates. Up to four players and their strangely funny little avatars (which resemble sort-of mini-voodoo dolls in crazy costumes) meet via the PS3 Network and make their way through a big “planet,” where they must work together to get through the world’s obstacles with their collective abilities in order to pass to the end of the level.

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The characters must use pieces of the world, stitching and gluing them together into usable objects to solve puzzles in their way during their explorations through colorfully bizarre landscapes. Anything and everything can be used to traverse the tiny characters of you and your friends through the much-larger-than-life world. Using the game’s map editor and a “kit” (which is a themed level with corresponding items) there’s literally billions upon billions of levels that you and your friends can create and allow others to play, too, through the PS3 Network.

One important aspect is collecting the “sponge” that serves as LittleBigPlanet’s upgrading system. By collecting these yellow “sponge” balls, you acquire points that can be used to get not only new clothing and items that your characters can wear, but helping along the way in advancing your character’s abilities to use more and more pieces and construction mechanisms of the world to design more and more peculiar levels.

The level-building editor in LittleBigPlanet is one of the most amazing you’ll find in any game. At E3, it was shown how using a simple copy and paste technique along with a shaping tool could build a half-pipe or tower. A “tank” that rolled across the terrain carrying characters on top was built using some screws, glue, wood and wheels.

This is certainly an ambitious, unique and refreshingly different game coming from Sony, so it will be interesting to see if such a title that doesn’t conveniently fit in any specific gaming genre attracts a large following. However, looking back at the successes of Katamari Damacy and Viva Piñata, LittleBigPlanet and its simplistic charm hiding a challenging gameplay complexity has a very good opportunity to elevate itself above the string of sequels and “me, too” copycat titles that can sometimes overwhelm the industry.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(August 10, 2007)


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